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Why is the universe bio-friendly? (Robinson Prize Lecture in Cosmology)

Professor Paul Davies, Director of the Beyond Center for Fundamental Concepts in Science, Arizona State University

Date/Time: 24th November 2011

Advances in fundamental physics suggest natural universe-generating mechanisms, suggesting infinitely many big bangs scattered through time and space. Many leading cosmologists think the observed universe is but an infinitesimal fragment in a vast and more elaborate system dubbed the multiverse. This approach to understanding the architecture of the universe also offers an explanation of the Goldilocks enigma as to ­why our own universe is so bio-friendly that it looks like an intentional design. But reasoning from the physics alone to the multiverse concept has bizarre implications for the nature of reality, and the concept of an observer. All this is pertinent to the question of our place and our role as participants in the universe.